Thursday, October 28, 2010

FRD - Apple of My Eye - Evelyn and Jeff

Evelyn and I first "met" online in our Event Management course. Her and I got along very well, we agreed on a lot of things and are similar in many ways, we were even born within a few days of one another! We have since met in person but both of us being small business owners, plus working our day jobs, renovating, pet owning and life living leaves little time for real meet ups, thank goodness for Facebook! Ev has started a wonderfully successful event design company and she is extremely talented in colour coordinating and making things look absolutely flawless. Check her drool worthy dessert tables and other pretty projects out at http://www.sweetstylings.com/. Thank you to As I See It Photography for the stunning images of Evelyn and Jeff's crisp, clean, modern and of course, perfectly put together wedding.

Evelyn & Jeff

September 13, 2008

Overall theme/colour/feel for the wedding:

I’m a Contemporary Classic girl all the way, so I wanted our wedding to be timeless, sophisticated but a little fun as well. For cultural reasons, I could not have the Black and White combo I craved…black and white is too stark and could be misinterpreted as colours of mourning in Chinese culture, so I compromised with ivory/white, silver and apple green (I wanted desperately to use green apples after seeing a really cool centrepiece idea on The Knot!). Ours was a “Fall”-ish wedding, but I really did not want to use the more conventional reds, oranges and browns.

How we met:

We met at the University of Alberta through our mutual friend Ainsley – I was friends with Ainsley throughout high school and she became friends with a group of boys she met in Engineering…one of them happened to be my future husband! We didn’t start seeing each other until 2 weeks before our First Year ended…just in time for Jeff to move back to BC for the summer. Fun (?) fact: we have actually spent about half of our dating years in a long-distance relationship.

Proposal:

It’s not your typical romantic story…

I was still in my last year of school in Edmonton and Jeff was living in Calgary. I came down on the bus to visit and when Jeff picked me up, I was hungry and wanted a McDonald’s cheeseburger and fries. I eat at a snail’s pace…reallllly slow…so I was wondering why Jeff was pacing in the living room of his condo while I was taking my time eating my supper. Jeff proposed that we should take a walk after I finished eating…at this point, it was about 11pm…which was a rather odd time to choose to take a walk, non? Nevertheless, we went on a walk. Long story short, we wandered in what seemed like an aimless fashion, with him acting more and more bizarre, and then suddenly, we walked back to the condo. I did think “Oh my god, is he going to propose?” but when NOTHING happened, I thought that I was going a little crazy. After arriving back to the condo, I went to wash up for bed, completely confused. After I finished getting ready for bed, Jeff pulled me aside and got down on one knee to propose in the living room of his condo, just after midnight! Turns out, he had an elaborate plan of candles and rose petals but he spent too much time running errands with his parents that afternoon so they thwarted his plans. As well, he was going to propose at sunset, but since I took so long eating, we missed sunset. The aimless wandering? He was trying to find a location he saw once that had twinkle lights strung up…nope, those weren’t around. So what’s a boy to do? He proposed in the most practical location, in the privacy of Home with no fanfare, just genuine words. And to be honest, I’m not a roses and candles kind of gal, and the hijinks are so typically “us” – perfect.

Wedding drama:

Lordy, if only I knew what I know now! I would have hired a Day of Coordinator, for sure, because the amount of stress of planning a detailed wedding while working a demanding full-time job, being a new Cat Mom, organizing and coping with all of our out-of-town family and wedding guests (96% of our guests came from outside of Calgary) and doing all of this while my fiancé was mostly out-of-town, himself, nearly sent me over the edge! I slept, probably 2 hours the night before my wedding – tops – and I didn’t have time to absorb the wonderful feeling of having all of my loved ones with me to celebrate. This is partially the reason I became a wedding planner and designer – to save Brides from headache and to allow them to have a (mostly!) stress-free Day and enjoy spending this happy time with loved ones.

Deets:

Church: Hillhurst United

Reception: Valley Ridge Golf Club

Dress: Alfred SungBlissful Bridal127- 7004 Macleod Trail SE(It’s a small salon across from Cactus Club. Tammy, the owner, is THE most personable and hands-on salon owner I’ve ever met)